As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,282, it is possible to provide a chamber for treating photographic film or other sheet material, the chamber being formed of a pair of parallel side plates and four or a greater even number of approximately equal-length rollers extending transversely between the side plates, each in rolling line contact with its neighbors and all rotatable about parallel longitudinal axes, so that the material to be processed may be passed between pairs of rollers into and out of said chamber. A recognized object of such structures is to avoid substantial leakage of fluid from or into the chamber, either between the rollers or between the ends of the rollers and the side plates. The present invention relates to a particularly effective design for accomplishing the seal between the rollers and the side plates.
While the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,282 discloses a means for sealing the rollers against the side plates, the sealing means described there is relatively expensive to manufacture and generally requires very accurately machined side plates combined with the use of a thick grease, graphite or similar material positioned between the ends of the rollers and the side plates to both reduce friction and aid in establishing a fluid-tight seal.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive means for accomplishing a fluid-tight seal between the rollers and the side plates of a material processor of the type described.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sealing means which does not require accurately machined side plates.
A further object of the invention is to provide a sealing means for the ends of the rollers which does not require the use of grease, graphite, pastes, sealing compounds or the like either to aid in the fluid-tight seal or to reduce friction between the ends of the rollers and the side plates.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a sealing means for the ends of resilient rollers having rigid shafts which prolongs the useful life of the rollers by reducing stresses which tend to separate the resilient material of the rollers from their shafts.